Notes and Editorial Reviews

Back in the 70s an article appeared in the New York Times about Wagner’s Ring with a title something like “Solti or Karajan, Both are Necessary.” That was, more or less, the sum total of the Ring discography as far as most critics were concerned. Böhm’s live Bayreuth performances, from 1966, received scant if any mention. To be sure the Bayreuth orchestra was no match for Karajan’s Berliners or Solti’s Vienna Philharmonic purely technically, but Böhm’s cast was sensational, the best that the stereo era had to offer. It can be described as “Solti plus,” since it used many of the same singers as the Solti Ring–principally Birgit Nilsson’s Brünhilde, Wolfgang Windgassen’s Siegfried, James King’s Siegmund, Gustav Neidlinger’sRead more Alberich, and Kurt Böhme’s Fafner.

The principal difference among the major characters consists of Theo Adam’s very human and vulnerable Wotan (instead of Hans Hotter), and Leonie Rysanek in the role of Sieglinde (as opposed to Solti’s Regine Crespin, who was Karajan’s Brünhilde). There is also the tradition of some luxury casting at Bayreuth, putting major or past-prime singers in small parts (Martha Mödl as Waltraute), and casting young but soon-to-be-more-important artists such as Helga Dernesch, Anja Silja, Martti Talvela, and Thomas Stewart. Sieglinde was one of Rysanek’s major roles, and her famous coital shriek when Siegfried pulls the sword from Hunding’s tree (sound sample) remains an iconic moment in Wagnerian performance, not just for its overt sexual suggestiveness, but for what it says about Böhm’s interpretation more generally.

Simply put, this is the most purely theatrical, exciting ring on disc. Böhm, as everyone who sang with him will tell you, was a true man of the theater. His tempos are generally swift, and focused on moving the action forward relentlessly, but never merely frenetically. He lets his singers really sing, supporting them with unaffected mastery. Not for him Karajan’s revisionist “conception” of Wagner’s scoring–this is a living, breathing, performance by characters who spring to life vividly, without a trace of routine. For that reason, even if Solti also remains a reference for the combination of singing and playing, when I want to hear Wagner’s Ring in modern stereo, this one, now a Decca bargain box, remains my personal version of choice.

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